


Never Did Run Smooth

by DGCatAniSiri



Category: Were the World Mine (2008)
Genre: Alternative Perspective, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-22
Updated: 2014-06-22
Packaged: 2018-02-05 18:28:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1828063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DGCatAniSiri/pseuds/DGCatAniSiri
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The events of the movie through Jonathon's perspective.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Never Did Run Smooth

**Author's Note:**

> Jonathon seemed a little underdeveloped for my tastes in the movie, so I needed to fill in the gaps. It turned in to a complete perspective flip of the movie, which, well why not, right?

Dodgeball. Without a doubt, the creator of this so-called game was burning in some level of hell. Coach wasn’t helping, demanding ‘sweat’ from them and making it sound like ‘blood.’ Of course, it didn’t help that no matter what team he was on, there was one student who was going to be targeted by just about everyone in the room. 

Jonathon rolled his eyes at Cooper’s lame joke. ‘Oo, there’s a gay kid in the class! Let’s make fun of him!’ Real mature, guys. Not that he was going to say that out loud – it’d be social suicide. He sympathized with Timothy, but all getting in between the taunts and Timothy would do would make him a mark too. At least Timothy could give as good as he got – his retort of ‘you wish’ threw Cooper for a loop and Jonathon hid a smirk. That smirk became a scowl at Coach’s ‘fancy feet’ comment. Jonathon supposed he couldn’t completely blame his friends for the jokes and cracks with that as an example.

Jonathon would have been the only one who didn’t find Cooper hitting Timothy right in the face with his ball not funny, so he made himself smile and laugh on the way out the doors, then shoved Cooper a little harder than playfully on the way back to the locker room, expecting that he wouldn’t pick up on the fact that it hadn’t been entirely good-natured. He was right. Cooper just took it as the usual horseplay. Jonathon wasn’t exactly sure where the protective instinct towards Timothy came from, but someone at the school should be on his side, right?

He dressed slowly, waiting for Timothy. He found himself slightly annoyed at Cooper and Cole’s taunts at him as he came into the locker room, though Taylor’s genuine praise actually made him feel... He didn’t know exactly, but it made him think that maybe there was hope for his friends, or at least a couple of them. 

Once the others had cleared out, Jonathon finished dressing. He looked to Timothy. “Need some ice?” he asked, extending an olive branch.

Timothy didn’t look at him. “I can handle it.” Jonathon winced, though he understood Timothy’s hostility. In his shoes, he wouldn’t be expecting anything resembling kindness from any rugby jock either. He grabbed his bag and headed to Ms. Tebbit’s class. 

Ms. Tebbit was cool, though a little odd. She spent a lot of time talking about Shakespeare. Jonathon had to admit, there was a lot about it that was interesting, though it took a few readings to actually understand. His friends, though, weren’t exactly the type to spend their time reading it again – most of them didn’t want to read it in the first place. Though he definitely was having issues with the whole ‘write in verse’ thing. Or maybe it was just writing his feelings – Jonathon normally just kept his feelings to himself. It was a lot easier to bottle them up than express them. As he worked, Ms. Tebbit approached him and placed a hand on his shoulder, as if attempting to encourage him to dig deep and confront his feelings. He just summoned up an uncomfortable smile until she walked away.

Despite his trouble with the assignment, Jonathon had to admit that he actually found himself looking forward to the play, wondering what roll he’d get.

After school was rugby practice. When the whistle blew to give them a break, he raced over to where Becky was sitting with her friend. He gave her a quick peck as he leaned on the railing of the stands. Becky was a sweet girl, more or less. Maybe a little unwilling to accept something that didn’t match her decision of what was ‘right,’ but for the most part she was all right.

“You like watching us out there?” he asked with a flirtatious smile.

Her smile was equally flirtatious. “I love watching you.”

“I bet you do.” Crystal just rolled her eyes.

“Please, don’t make out in front of me. I want to keep my appetite, please,” she said, only half joking. Becky gave her a playful shove before looking back to her boyfriend.

Jonathon smiled. “I shouldn’t spend too much time over here anyway. Don’t want to make the other guys jealous.” Becky shrugged.

“Let them be jealous.”

“Let them be single, please!” Crystal added. She looked over the rugby players, her eyes settling over towards first Cooper and Cole, then drifting over towards Taylor, looking him over appraisingly.

Jonathon saw her gaze leave the eternal jokers and grinned. “What, Cooper and Cole not your type?”

Crystal turned to him, an amused smirk on her face. “The ambiguously gay duo over there? I wouldn’t date a guy more into his best friend than his girlfriend.”

Becky looked at her, seemingly surprised at the description of the two boys. “They’re not gay!” she exclaimed. “Cole was dating Heather last month.”

Crystal just shook her head – if her friend wasn’t getting it now, she probably would need to see Cooper and Cole kissing and groping to get her point. Jonathon hid a smirk. “You probably don’t want to call them that to their faces, though,” he said. She shot him a look that implied that she already knew better and didn’t appreciate the unsolicited advice. Then she went back to giving Taylor a once over, leaving Jonathon with the impression that soon he wouldn’t be the only one on the team with a girlfriend in the bleachers during practice.

The break ended and Becky and Crystal had to leave – they had homework. As Morgan Hill’s sports stars, the teachers took pity on the players, lessening the amount of work they had to take home. The teachers wanted to make sure that the best rugby team ever at Morgan Hill were focused on their game. If the team won state championships, the school would get more funding, and all the teachers looked forward to that. Jonathon didn’t particularly mind Becky leaving. A part of him thought that maybe it was a little odd that he didn’t want his girlfriend around, but he managed to silence that voice. _Focus on the game, Jonathon. That’s why you’re here on the field._

Practice finally ended and he and the others got into Cole’s truck and drove up to the cheap pizza place that Russ worked at, looking for something to eat. Mr. Preston, the man who owned the place both loved and hated when they came by – after all, they all wanted their own pizzas and could run through his whole inventory. But they did always pay their bills at the end of the day, and when they didn’t, it came out of Russ’s pay (which usually meant that he’d make the others pay up so he’d actually get some money) so that made it a bit better for him.

Cooper, being his loud and obnoxious self, nearly got them thrown out when he jumped on Cole’s back and pretended to ride him like a mechanical bull. If there’d been other customers in there, the bucking would have probably ruined a few meals. Jonathon had considered commenting that maybe Timothy had been on to something this afternoon, only Cooper wishing he had Cole’s balls, but figured getting into a fight over Cooper’s sexuality here wouldn’t exactly endear himself to Mr. Preston.

Finally, though, he was let off at his house. He waved to the other guys as the truck pulled out of his driveway. He entered the house and tossed his bag on the couch, carefully avoiding the bags of luggage by the door. His parents were getting ready for their big second honeymoon, wanting to take it before Jonathon graduated to limit his opportunity to throw a house-totaling party while they were gone (It’s so nice knowing my parents trust me...). His dad had finally managed to get a promotion that meant he wouldn’t be traveling so much, away with business proposals and marketing... junk. Jonathon hated to admit that he was following the stereotype of a dumb jock, but the business stuff his dad did, even if his dad enjoyed the work, wasn’t something Jonathon was interested in, so he hadn’t bothered to learn the more technical terms of the trade. 

“Johnny! That you?” his mother called. 

“No, Mom. The house is being robbed,” he said, rolling his eyes. The door was locked, anyone coming into the house would have needed a key, but his mother still always asked him. It wasn’t as if they kept a spare under the welcome mat or anything. 

Anna Cordin smiled at her son as she entered the living room. “Johnny, I’m going out with some of the girls. I’ve been stocking up on TV dinners for you while your father and I are gone, so feel free to break into them. I suppose you can order pizza on a couple of nights.” She was out the door shortly thereafter. While Jonathon’s dad’s promotion was coming, the wheels of bureaucracy were still turning on it, so he was still out of town at the moment – when he got home, he’d pretty much have just enough time to walk in the door, say ‘hi,’ ditch the suit, and be on his way back to the airport, hopefully remembering his wife and luggage this time.

Given his parents’ constant coming and goings, Jonathon wasn’t going to tell them about the play – scheduling that into their plans was going to cause headaches for them, especially since it was about a week into their trip. If Jonathon knew his father, he’d picked out non-refundable tickets for the trip. No one ever said that the Cordin men were the wisest men alive. Jonathon just sighed as he raided the freezer.

***

Jonathon had the dubious honor of being the first to audition for the play. Why did they bother calling them auditions when participation was mandatory? For the most part, his experience with singing was limited to just the odd shower. Miss Tebbit seemed impressed, though. Of course, she had been extremely kind during Henry’s audition and he’d sounded like an ostrich gargling salt water. (Jonathon had still been in the locker room when Ian had auditioned, and, after hearing the others talk about it, was thankful for that fact.)

The rugby team sat outside the gym, waiting for Ms. Tebbit to finish the auditions so they could do their warm-ups before heading to the field. Coach Driskill went in and complained to her, but she stood firm. Jonathon sighed and sunk to the floor, slightly envying Cooper for having the rugby ball, just for the sake of having something in his hands to keep busy with. He’d pretty much gone and tuned out the world when he was tapped by Russ, who was messing with his iPod and asked who was auditioning.

Jonathon glanced through the crack in the door... and suddenly understood what it meant when people said that their heart skipped a beat. Timothy was on the stage, singing that audition piece Miss Tebbit had picked out. It was almost as if all there was a light around him, a spotlight on him and him alone. Jonathon pulled away from the door and gave his head a shake. The moment had felt something like what he saw in all those cheesy romantic movies that Becky kept dragging him to when the guy spots the girl. But that couldn’t be it. It couldn’t. _You have a girlfriend, Jonathon. Remember? Whatever is happening... You’re not... gay._ Despite how he tried to stop it, the word hit his mind and dug in. 

Somehow, he made it through rugby without thinking about it at all. But he did beg off the pizza that night, going home and trying to figure this out. He threw himself onto his bed and his brain went into overdrive. He’d been saying the others were incredibly immature for all of the crap they gave Timothy, but that wasn’t because he liked him, right? It was because... Because... Shit. He didn’t exactly have a good reason for that. So maybe there was something there. But... He was dating Becky. He couldn’t be gay, right?

***

That night, he had a dream. He was in a forest, looking for something or someone. He also felt there was something on his face... Like stage make up or something. He only felt it on his left side, around his eye. As he moved through the trees, he started seeing things. Cooper and Cole were horsing around like normal under the branches of a tree. It was odd, though, because there seemed to be... something different about how they were acting, something Jonathon couldn’t quite put his finger on. 

He kept going, still looking for that elusive ‘something’ that he couldn’t find. The part of him that was aware wished he knew what it was, but the dream him was unconcerned, moving casually. The next person he passed was Ms. Tebbit. She gave him a smile, and motioned for him to keep going, which he did so. He approached a clearing. Becky, dressed in a silk white nightgown, lay on a sheet. She looked to him and gave him her best ‘come hither’ look. However, Jonathon simply turned and left her behind. 

A smile spread across his face as he heard the gentle sounds of the audition song playing – or was it being sung? Up ahead, under a large tree, someone stood. They had the same make up over their left eye that Jonathon felt was over his own. As he drew closer, he realized something else – this person was a guy. Finally, he caught sight of the guy’s face. It was Timothy. 

He reached Timothy, and reached up, placing a hand on his cheek. He smiled and leaned in to press his lips to Timothy’s...

As he rolled over, he knocked over his alarm clock (Thank God it was Saturday), the sound of it hitting the ground waking him up. Jonathon thought some nasty things toward it, wishing he could have stayed with his dream a little longer, and not just because it was still the dead of night, the moonlight shining through the window. And then his conscious mind caught up with things. It hadn’t been a wet dream, thank God, but dream-him had passed up being with Becky for Timothy. That was definitely a hint from his subconscious. Now he just had to figure out... What, whether to dump Becky and start dating Timothy? That wasn’t even an option. It would be social suicide, and even though he liked Timothy – as a friend? As more than a friend? Dammit, this was confusing – he also liked having friends. In Kingston, it wasn’t as if there were many people jumping to be friends with gays. The few that did were already outcasts and it didn’t matter what they did. And how many sports stars were gay, or at least open about it?

Jonathon liked his friends. He liked being popular. He liked his life the way it was before... Before Timothy started invading his dreams. Timothy was an okay guy, but... Jonathon WASN’T gay. He just... he couldn’t be. It wasn’t something that... Damn, now even his arguments were sounding hollow empty, and self-absorbed. It was as if even his brain was telling him not to deny it, that he felt... something for Timothy, something stronger than he did with Becky. 

He started thinking about the matter, trying to just reason it out, figure out why his dreams wanted him away from Becky and with Timothy. Timothy probably thought he was just a dumb jock, maybe one of the nicer ones, but still a part of the mass of guys that made up the ‘assholes who make fun of the fag’ group. Becky was a cheerleader down at the high school, wanting to date a high profile jock. There weren’t many available in Kingston, given its low ranking in pretty much every sport, but Morgan Hill’s rugby team had finally cracked into a decent ranking, so it made sense that the head cheerleader for the school who came to cheer for Morgan Hill (because it wasn’t as if the all boys school had a cheerleading team) would date the star rugby player. That’s how high school worked.

...But, thinking about it, Jonathon couldn’t really think of something that he specifically LIKED about her. Not in the way a boyfriend should like his girlfriend. Actually, thinking about it, Becky was a gossip, judgmental, and paraded Jonathon around the town like he was some prize she’d won. Come to think of it, he really didn’t understand why they were dating... other than the fact that if he really was interested in Timothy, she made for a great beard, given that she really seemed to care more about the position her boyfriend had than who the boyfriend actually was. Nothing that they’d done or even talked about had ever really gone very in depth – he knew little more about her after two months of dating than he had before they’d started. And he couldn’t think of any occasion where he had spoken to her about himself with more than just a few very shallow discussions. Which brought him back to the whole Timothy thing. 

Maybe he really was interested in Timothy. The thought was difficult to really process, but it was difficult to argue with the reality of what he was feeling – effectively nothing towards Becky and... whatever this was for Timothy. 

_Late night philosophizing doesn’t do anything but give you a headache, Jonathon._ It was still late, he needed some sleep. Sleep deprivation was just going to cause him more trouble. He needed to figure this out, but now was definitely not the time. Maybe when he had actually managed to get some time to sleep he could actually sort through all of this, but right now... Now, he just needed to get back to sleep.

***

When Jonathon woke up several hours later, it was with another of the Timothy-centered dreams lingering in his mind. This time they’d been alone at a lake (looking suspiciously like the one down at the park), just holding each other. It had been nice, a simple... what, date? 

He sighed. Two dreams, not to mention that... moment at Timothy’s audition... One’s an accident, two’s a coincidence, three’s a trend. It was hard to admit, but getting harder to deny. There was something about Timothy that he couldn’t stop thinking about. But it didn’t mean he was gay. It just meant... Well, something. But it didn’t mean that he was gay and into Timothy. It didn’t. It couldn’t. 

Jonathon dragged himself out of bed, and somehow managed to even go an hour without thinking of Timothy. It helped when Cooper, Cole, and the others showed up to drag him to a weekend practice. As they kept playing, though, Jonathon found he was playing on automatic and his thoughts were drifting back towards the dreams and Timothy. Finally, he called for a drink break. He didn’t bother hiding his eye-roll when Cooper admitted that they had no water or anything other than what was available at what could only technically be called a drinking fountain on the other side of the field. Taylor offered to go pick up some water from his house, which wasn’t that far away, though he was still going to drive back, in order to avoid carrying a cooler from his house to the field. Since it had been his idea in the first place, Jonathon decided to go with him and give him a hand.

Taylor’s house was empty at the moment, his parents doing something for their work or whatever. “There’s some water bottles in the fridge downstairs. I’ll just buy some new ones for Chris after practice.” Taylor’s older brother was living in the downstairs apartment while he went to college, not having been able to afford dorm costs.

Jonathon pulled a few bottles out of the fridge upstairs while Taylor went for the others. He caught sight of a family photo, one of those multi-generational ones, with Taylor and his family, his brother, his parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, everyone. Based on how old Taylor looked in it, Jonathon figured it was at least five or six years old. As he was looking over it, Taylor emerged from the basement. Jonathon was about to head out to the car when he caught sight of what he presumed was one of Taylor’s cousins, who looked to be about Jonathon and Taylor’s current age. Jonathon had known Taylor for the past four years, and his family usually made it to the rugby games, but he’d never seen this cousin.

“Hey, Taylor, who’s that?” he asked, pointing to the mystery member.

Taylor sighed as he looked to the photo. “My cousin, Jake.”

“How come I’ve never met him?” 

“He died, about a month after that photo.”

Jonathon was sorry he’d brought it up. “Sorry. I didn’t...”

“Yeah, my family doesn’t really talk about it. Or him.” Taylor paused a moment. “He killed himself. He was gay, and... no one in my family really accepted it. At best, he was ‘tolerated.’ But... he just couldn’t take any more of... our crap.” Taylor sighed. “I was as bad as the rest of my family, just because Mom, Dad... even Chris all said it was wrong. Something like the only time all three of them all agreed on something. But... When Jake died, I realized that it was us that drove him over the edge. I like to think I wasn’t the only one who figured that out, but... I don’t know. No one in the family really talks about Jake anymore.”

Jonathon nodded, understanding. “That’s why you’re like the only guy at Morgan Hill who’s nice to Timothy, isn’t it?”

Taylor nodded. “May not make much difference, but if someone’s nice to him, it might make it so he doesn’t make the same choice. I think about Jake now and realize that he wasn’t any different because he came out – he was gay before coming out and he’d been a cool guy, had all these dreams, and hopes, and... and because we couldn’t accept one part of him, he couldn’t... couldn’t live with himself anymore. Couldn’t take someone else doing that around me, you know?” Taylor swallowed, clearly doing his best to not start crying. Jonathon put a friendly hand on his shoulder. Taylor shook his head and cleared his throat. “Sorry about... breaking down like this. Uh, like I said, my family... doesn’t really talk about him ever since... Guess I just, uh... needed to get that off my chest.”

“It’s cool. Won’t tell anyone. Though this is good stuff for blackmail,” Jonathon said, smiling to let Taylor know he was kidding. Well, mostly. Still, Taylor laughed, which was what Jonathon had been aiming for.

Taylor swallowed down the rest of his memories and picked the water bottles back up, heading for the car. Jonathon thought it over, really understanding for the first time just how crappy living in a place like Kingston had to be for anyone who was gay – the whole line about how ‘man shall not lie with man’ or whatever the actual quote was seemed to be all over town. He’d never really thought about it, but it had to be hell on anyone going through it. 

He had no idea what was going on in his head, what his feelings for Timothy were or meant. But having someone at Morgan Hill who was on his side might help him out, make him stay away from that choice. The idea of Timothy killing himself... terrified Jonathon. His feelings may be conflicted right now, but he knew that he couldn’t lose Timothy in his life. He didn’t know why he felt that way exactly – it didn’t mean that he was into Timothy, not really – but he just wanted to make sure that this nice guy, this guy getting all this crap from the other guys who didn’t deserve it, didn’t do something stupid and permanent. 

Somehow, that decision seemed to make him feel more comfortable with the conflicting emotions that were bouncing around in his head. It would soothe the part of him that wanted to make the dreams of Timothy a reality and it wouldn’t cause him the conflict of trying to figure if he wanted to be Timothy’s boyfriend. It was as good of a compromise as he could swing at the moment, and at least it quieted his head.

Maybe later he’d get a chance to really think this over. Until then, he’d found a compromise, and it worked for him, at least as far as he needed it to. 

***

Monday, the cast list went up shortly after classes let out. Jonathon saw Timothy looking it over as he headed for warm-ups before practice. He was the first to arrive for practice, second to the list. He looked to the piece of paper and managed to spot his name as he approached it. He was playing Lysander. Timothy was Puck. Jonathon was pretty impressed – he hadn’t done any acting before, unless you counted the time Cole’s sister had coerced him and several of their friends into her film project three years ago.

He rested an arm on Timothy’s shoulder and grinned to him. “Looks like I’m one of the lovers,” he said. In his mind, he realized how much that sounded like a come on. Fortunately, the other seniors swarmed towards the list before the comment seemed to register on Timothy.

“I’m not shaving.”

“At least you’re not the jackass.”

“At least the jackass doesn’t have to wear a dress!”

“What is Thisby? Hey, is that a chick?!”

The others were there and gone in seconds. Jonathon looked over to the ticket booth, where Ms. Tebbit was observing. “Hey, Miss T,” Jonathon said with a wave.

The theatre teacher looked at them and gave a smile, implying she knew something she wasn’t letting on. “Congratulations, gentlemen. Awaken and empower what’s within.”

She gave them an enigmatic smile, causing Jonathon and Timothy to share a look of ‘...o-kay...’ Timothy turned, heading for the exit. Jonathon turned and the words ‘nice pipes’ were out of his mouth before he had a chance to think about them. He tried to cover with a lame excuse about how he’d heard Timothy’s audition, then ducked into the gym to avoid anything else. And yet, there was still a dopey grin on his face. Lucky for Jonathon, the other guys just thought that he’d been talking with Becky. So much for not letting the dreams of being with Timothy take charge. At least he’d managed to keep the would-be flirtations to when it was just him and Timothy.

***

Rehearsals continued for the next couple of weeks. They got their scripts and started learning their lines. Jonathon snuck looks at Timothy whenever he thought he could get away with it. Although the others all seemed to be taking to their lines fairly slowly, he noticed that Timothy seemed to click to the lines far faster than anyone else. Which wasn’t exactly difficult, given that half the ‘cast’ were only doing it because if they didn’t do this play, the Morgan Hill school code said they’d either not graduate or have to take summer courses, which would seriously crimp most of the rugby team’s current plans.

After a while with a lot of difficulty trying to keep up with Ms. Tebbit’s schedule for memorization, even with it having been very generous, waiting until the last couple of days before opening night for them to actually be completely off book, he realized that he needed some help. So he decided to turn to the most obvious choice.

After rehearsal, he looked to Timothy. “Hey, Timothy.” Timothy looked back at him in a bit of surprise. “You’ve got these lines down pretty well. Mind... helping me out, giving me some pointers?” 

Timothy blinked in surprise. “Uh, yeah. Sure.”

Jonathon gave what he hoped was just a friendly smile. “Thanks. This is kicking my ass. Tonight and tomorrow are packed for me, you know, rugby, but how about Thursday? After practice?” He’d already agreed to go out with Becky the next day, where she would probably talk his ear off about trying to get Crystal and Taylor to hook up, and he didn’t exactly want to mention that to Timothy, nor would it be a good idea to cancel his date with her to run lines with ‘the gay kid,’ at least if he wanted to keep quiet about his... Just admit it, Jonathon. Your crush. Somehow, the word didn’t sound particularly wrong anymore.

He was cutting it close, since Mrs. Tebbit wanted them off book on Friday, but if he was honest with himself, he was really just asking so he could spend some time with Timothy outside of school and away from any of the guys. The lines... Well, he could do with or without memorizing them.

Timothy nodded. “Sure. Down at the park okay?”

For an instant Jonathon felt a flash of disappointment, realizing that he’d wanted Timothy to invite him to his house. Or he could invite Timothy over to his house, since his parents had left last week, and they weren’t due back until after next week... Don’t go there, Jonathon, he warned himself. Just spending time with Timothy was a good place to start. Anything else was a reach at this point. “Sounds good.” He headed for the locker room, praying none of the other guys had overheard him. Although he could defend himself, he’d rather not have to – it’d just make it harder for him to continue his attempts at friendship.

***

The next day during gym, they played a game of basketball with shirts and skins. Timothy was on shirts, Jonathon on skins. After Timothy managed a shot that none of the other guys could block – Timothy was like the tallest guy in class, Cooper being the only one who could almost meet his gaze at eye level – Jonathon, making sure none of the other guys saw him, indulged himself and slapped Timothy’s ass, telling him “Good form” in the process. 

At this point, Jonathon realized, he wasn’t even trying to deny that his feelings for Timothy were deeper than friendship. Hard to believe, but the facts were staring him in the face. 

And the strangest thing was, he didn’t mind. He had no plans on acting on those feelings beyond what he was already doing, but he didn’t have any problems with what he was doing now. Who would have guessed?

***

Thursday finally came. Rehearsal went fine, and rugby was off to a good start. Jonathon was, though he wasn’t about to admit that he was going in the first place, looking forward to his private rehearsal with Timothy after practice. He didn’t know what he expected to get out of it, but spending some time alone with the guy, trying to get to know him better, couldn’t be a bad thing.

Then Timothy came storming onto the field. “Who did it?” he called, tossing his things to the ground, drawing the attention of everyone on the field.

Jonathon turned as Cole gave a mocking laugh. “Aw, look who just flew in from fairy land!”

“Did you?” Timothy spat at him. Jonathon didn’t know what had gotten Timothy so angry, but knew that this wasn’t going to end well.

Cooper, in a tone that was anything but soothing, flashed a smug grin of his own at Timothy. “Hey, bud, calm down.”

“Who did it?” Timothy growled, sounding dangerously close to doing something that would get him in trouble – Morgan Hill code said anyone in a fight on school grounds would be expelled, but at the moment, Timothy clearly didn’t care about Morgan Hill code.

Attempting to defuse things, Jonathon stepped forward, tugging on Timothy’s arm. “Let’s walk,” he suggested, trying to get Timothy off the field and away from the others. Timothy wasn’t going for the rational approach, though, and pulled his arm out of Jonathon’s grip and shoved Cole, who pushed back. Timothy was on the ground, Cole following after, and Jonathon wasn’t sure if either of them were going to hold back anything.

“Hey guys! I caught a fairy!” Cole taunted when he was sure he had the upper hand. Jonathon let out a disgusted sigh and pulled Cole off of Timothy. 

“Leave the pansy alone!” Jonathon growled at Cole, the words out of his mouth before he had the opportunity to think about them. He looked to Timothy. “Get outta here!” he said, his anger carrying through to his tone. He wasn’t angry at Timothy but Cole, not to mention himself for not being able to defend Timothy the way he wanted to. But his mouth continued to move without his mind being consulted as he looked to Cole. “He’s not worth it.” The words came out and he motioned for the guys to get back to practice before he could think about it. He spared a glance back at Timothy, realizing just what he’d said and how he’d said it and was ready to kick himself for it. I think running lines in the park tonight is out of the question...

***

Mercifully, Coach had been off the field at the time, and Cole, though being something of a homophobic asshole, wasn’t going to jeopardize his place at Morgan Hill just to get Timothy thrown out, so he wasn’t about to rat out the fact that there’d been a fight, and neither would the other guys.

The next day, Jonathon tried to find the time to talk to Timothy, maybe explain what had happened. Unfortunately, his free moments didn’t seem to coincide with Timothy’s. He tried catching him at lunch, but Timothy had been particularly elusive. Not that Jonathon could blame him – he pretty much had to be as flighty as a fairy to avoid the crap from the other guys. Jonathon just wanted a chance to explain.

Finally he decided he’d just corner Timothy again after rehearsal – It might make him late for practice, but he could pass it off as staying after to work on the play, since it was an academic endeavor, which meant that it was technically more important than rugby, so if Driskill got angry about it, either he’d take it up with Mrs. Tebbit, who had consistently shown that she could defend herself without any difficulty against Coach’s tirades, or he’d go to Doctor Bellinger and get the same lecture about Morgan Hill code he had every other time that the play and rugby had come in conflict.

He was surprised that their last rehearsal before the day of the play was still without costumes. Miss Tebbit said that she had had some last minute inspirations, and needed more time with them. Jonathon wondered how they were going to be expected to perform in costumes for the first time, but then again, it’s not as if Hollywood-quality acting was expected from high school performers.

Today, Miss Tebbit had them running off book for the first time. Given the way that half the guys stumbled over their lines, Jonathon had a depressing idea of how the play was going to go if they’d have to look to Miss Tebbit for their lines the whole time.

Maybe he got a little too in to his performance at attempting to woo Cole’s character, but it was fun winding him up, especially after the fight yesterday. He couldn’t entirely suppress the slightly evil smirk on his face as he got well into Cole’s personal space. Cole pushed him off and away from him, starting to giggle, no doubt at the absurdity, not realizing just why Jonathon was enjoying himself in that moment. Miss Tebbit directed them to ‘sleep,’ about the only stage direction Cole seemed willing to follow.

Coach Driskill entered the room, dragging the bucket of balls behind him, in a not so subtle way of trying to get her to wrap things up. She glanced at her watch and gave him one of her looks, the one that said she wasn’t going anywhere. Coach sighed and turned around, returning to waiting impatiently out in the lobby.

Miss Tebbit motioned Timothy out from backstage, wearing a pair of fair wings. Jonathon couldn’t help watching him through his half-closed eyes, giving the impression of sleeping and that he was staying in character even as he indulged himself.

“Through the forest have I gone, but Athenian found I not. On whose eyes I might approve this flower’s force in stirring love?” Impressively, Timothy was entirely off book at this point on his own merit, not because Miss T had told them to be. Well, if nothing else, he’d probably manage to steal the show, hands down.

Timothy, still in character, raced behind the tree – _I didn’t notice before, but this tree looks a lot like the one in my dream..._ – hopped up onto the platform beside it, and let out a satisfied sigh. “Night and the silence.” He knelt down, looking towards Jonathon. “Who is here? Weeds of Athens he doth wear.” Then, with a slight smirk, he turned to Cole. “And the maiden sleeping sound on the dank and dirty ground.” He flirtatiously tousled Cole’s short hair. Cole fag-coughed, eliciting chuckles from the others and a glare from Miss Tebbit.

Timothy pulled out a purple flower from a pouch on his side, and didn’t even react to Cole snickering to himself “Aw, the fairy brought his own props.” Instead, he jumped down, kneeling close to Jonathon. Jonathon couldn’t help it, he opened his eyes for a minute, attempting to deliver a wordless apology for yesterday, but didn’t see any hostility in Timothy’s face. Instead, there was just this... look on his face, one almost of wonder and... affection? He closed his eyes again, returning to character, reluctantly.

“Churl upon thy eyes I throw. All the power... this charm doth owe.” And then there was something wet hitting him in the face. Jonathon reached up, wiping away water from his eyes. When he opened them... Timothy seemed again to be bathed in that brilliant light, like at the audition, even brighter this time.

“Timothy?” he said in surprise. He reached for the other boy, actually considering kissing him, right here in front of everyone. And in that moment, he didn’t care – it was all so clear now, he was in love with Timothy. He’d denied it, fought it, but he willingly gave up the fight right now.

Then Cole shattered their moment by actually looking at them and putting two and two together and realizing what was going on. “Nasty!” Then Timothy was moving around the auditorium, waving his flower in the faces of the other guys. And miraculously... they started making out with each other. Jonathon watched as Miss Tebbit pushed Cole, still wiping his eyes, towards Cooper, who got a big dopey grin on his face, then pulled his best friend into a powerful lip lock. Taylor and Bradley grabbed one another and began furiously making out, Bradley pushing Taylor back onto the podium.

As he watched, he also saw Coach Driskill enter the auditorium and stop, staring in shock. That’s... probably not good... Jonathon thought through the haze of suddenly uncorked emotions. “What in hell...?” the Coach said. That was all he got out before Timothy raced up to him and sprayed him as well. Coach grabbed at his face and turned around, tripping over the door on his way out. Jonathon heard Miss Tebbit chuckle to herself and he wondered what she knew about all of this. Not that he was complaining – he didn’t have to worry about the conflict between his social status and his heart anymore, and he was glad he no longer had to choose between his friends and Timothy. 

Speaking of... Jonathon hopped off the stage, attempting to get Timothy’s attention. Timothy glanced back at him and... The look on his face seemed to say ‘catch me if you can.’ Then he raced out the door, leaving Jonathon staring in surprise – Did Timothy like him in return, or was he just toying with him? Jonathon didn’t think he could take it if Timothy wasn’t really interested in him.

A gentle hand rested on his shoulder. He turned to see Miss Tebbit smiling at him. “Go. I’ll take care of things with Coach Driskill.” She said it with a slight smirk, as if she knew something that Jonathon didn’t. He wanted to stay, at least figure out what she was going to tell the coach, but his feet were already moving for the door. 

Somehow, he knew something seemed wrong, that what had just happened shouldn’t have. But instead, his thoughts kept turning back to Timothy. He didn’t understand it, but... That flower. There was something about the flower... Why couldn’t he focus? 

When his mind finally cleared, he’d thrown on his jacket and was already approaching the field, seeing Timothy, bicycle beside him, talking with his friends. He raced up, catching the last of what the girl was saying. “You’re mocking me, right? I mean you said he liked me.” As the rugby players came out on the field – strangely in what appeared to be a ballet formation, rather than their more normal one – she rolled her eyes.

Jonathon moved past her and smiled at Timothy, grabbing the strap of his bookbag. What he wanted to say was ‘there you are. Can we talk?’ so he could get him away from here and explain things... and maybe make out a bit. What came out was “How far I’ve chased you. Sweet, why flee so fast?” Where the hell did THAT come from? He’d just been hoping to at least get Timothy away from the field. Even with his newfound freedom of his feelings, he felt uncomfortable expressing how he felt about Timothy here on the rugby field where everyone in school could see and hear him.

Timothy attempted to push him away, but it was half-hearted, as was his reminding Jonathon of his practice. Given how important rugby was for Jonathon – he had a scholarship to college riding on it – he couldn’t afford to miss practice, but at the moment, what mattered most was Timothy. Timothy was here, now. Timothy was what was important. “I can see your heart beating,” Jonathon said, again wondering where the strange Shakespearian-esque statements were coming from.

The girl grabbed him by the collar and pulled him away, eyes focused on Timothy, not really giving a thought to Jonathon, her business with Timothy clearly not finished. “I’m not done here yet, sport. Is this the accident? You... seducing my boyfriend?”

The guy, who had been alternating between giving Jonathon a nasty once over and giving Timothy moony eyes, looked back to her, in a combination of not believing and not paying her attention. “Boyfriend?” The way he said it, he seemed to find his status a surprise. Given the way he was eyeing Timothy, though, Jonathon hoped that he was this girl’s boyfriend. He had no intention of sharing Timothy’s affection with anyone else.

“Yes, Max was the accident, and I’ll fix it, I promise!” Timothy said, pushing the other boy towards her. Then he looked to Jonathon and smiled slightly. “Let’s walk.” Jonathon grinned and followed him off the field. Behind them he heard the guy trying to get Timothy’s attention again. And then his girlfriend shouted loud enough to probably be heard back in the auditorium.

“What is WRONG with you? What is wrong with ALL of you?! This is really fucked up!” If she said anything else, it wasn’t loud enough for Jonathon to hear it.

“Timothy... I’m sorry about yesterday,” he said. Finally, he was speaking normally.

Timothy shook his head and smiled. “It’s okay. You don’t have to apologize.”

“But... I shouldn’t have said those things...”

“Jonathon... It’s okay. I really don’t mind. I mean... Words are words right?”

“And actions speak louder than words,” Jonathon said, and he leaned in and kissed Timothy, savoring the heady rush he got from it. This was better than kissing Becky had ever been, even though he only had his lips pressed slightly against Timothy’s. He pulled away before he wanted to, but then, if he’d waited until he’d kissed Timothy to his fill, they’d probably never come up for air. He just wanted to prove to Timothy that he wasn’t just a jackass jock out to pick on the gay kid. Despite the kiss being short and sweet, it still left him breathless. When he got a lungful of oxygen, he saw that Timothy was smiling, the same dopey grin Jonathon was sure was on his face. 

Timothy chuckled. “That... that was pretty loud.” 

“I... I want to know more about you, Timothy. I mean... Is that okay?” Maybe that first bit of Shakespearian-speak was just an overload of Midsummer. Now he was speaking perfectly normally, and saying things that he wished he could have said sooner. 

Timothy nodded. “Yeah. As long as you return the favor.” Jonathon smiled and they made their way towards town.

As they headed down Main Street, Jonathon tried to figure out exactly what was going on. Again, his mind seemed unable to break past whatever spell was on him... Spell... Before he could give that thought the consideration it deserved, he was distracted by shouting. “Timothy! Timmy!”

He looked behind them and saw a woman racing after them, waving to Timothy. Jonathon looked to him. “Hey, do you know her?

Timothy nodded with a shit-eating grin on his face. “That’s my mom.” By his expression, he looked to be trying to figure out how to explain Jonathon to her.

Jonathon opted to take the option out of his hands and extended a hand to her. “I’m Jonathon. You have a brilliant son.”

Timothy’s mom took his hand, smiling at him, then looked down at her hand. “Oh shit.” She winced and looked back to him. “Sorry. We just got our nails done.” She held up her hands to show him, then turned back to wave to another woman. “Nora Faye!” The second woman began approaching the three.

Timothy tried to pull Jonathon away. “Oh, no, Mom, we’ve got to run. We’ve got a lot of practicing to...” He trailed off as the second woman, a wide grin on her face, neared them. She reached out to Timothy.

“Oh, Timothy. Pleasure to finally meet...” She trailed off as she realized that Jonathon was there. “And... Jonathon Cordin! Well. You look... luminous!”

Jonathon grinned. “I’m in love.” Finally he clicked on who she was – Nora Bellinger, Doctor Bellinger’s wife.

Nora grinned at Jonathon’s response. “Yes! This is exactly what I meant by rising above, Donna! Your son, compatriots with Morgan Hill’s star rugby player.”

“We’re not ‘compatriots,’ we’re boyfriends.” He couldn’t help it, the words were out of his mouth before he could think about them. Not that he considered them wrong, but he probably shouldn’t have been so free about the statement, especially when he said it loud enough that probably everyone in Kingston could hear him.

Timothy and Donna looked at him in surprise, but Nora’s shock was the greatest of them all. “I’m sorry?”

Timothy chuckled nervously. “We have... got to go!” He pulled on Jonathon’s arm and they started walking away, leaving Timothy’s mom to do damage control, if she could. That was when a familiar black car pulled up and Becky poked her head out the window.

“Johnny!” Becky called. Jonathon rolled his eyes. This was not the time to deal with her of all people. Crystal pulled the car over and both girls hopped out. “Johnny!” He hadn’t let it get to him before, but Becky’s insistence on calling him ‘Johnny’ was really irritating. Only his parents could get away with calling him ‘Johnny’ without it getting under his skin. He’d stopped going by that name after elementary school, which had been around the time that his parents had started letting their lives overtake their involvement in his.

Becky started gabbing in Jonathon’s ear. “Johnny, about tonight at the festival, I wanted to talk to you about-” 

Jonathon cut her off. “I’ve outgrown you.” To make his point, he looped his arm with Timothy’s, giving him a quick smile. Crystal noted the look that passed between the two boys and made a face, whether it was just because she realized that her friend was being dumped for a guy or because she wasn’t fag-friendly, Jonathon couldn’t tell.

Becky blinked in surprise, not quite getting what was happening. “Is this... a joke?”

Jonathon wanted to explain himself, put it delicately, but instead of something like ‘I’m sorry, but I’ve realized that I don’t like you or any girl like that,’ he said “Don’t mock my love! I would not change a raven for a dove.” The Shakespearian language was back, and seemingly worse than before. He’d wanted to be gentle, not blunt and vaguely insulting. He may not have liked her in that way, but he wasn’t exactly fond of the idea of her hating him for following his heart.

Not to mention, the Shakespearian language made it a little difficult for him to get his point across. “What?” Becky asked, understandably confused. Hell, he’d said it and he wasn’t exactly sure what he’d just said.

And, instead of clarifying, he just shouted, “Fly away!” He wanted to find a way to correct himself, get his point across, but now no words would come out at all. Apparently, that was going to be his final word on the subject.

Crystal clearly had had her fill of strange behavior. “Let’s go!” She headed back to the car and motioned for Becky to follow.

As she got back into the car, Becky glared at Jonathon. “You’d better pick me up at seven!” Jonathon had no intention of doing any such thing, on that his intentions and his actions were going to be in agreement. Before he could say that to Timothy, he motioned for Jonathon to wait here. Flower in hand, Timothy turned around and ran back to his mother, whose argument with Nora Faye was audible from about a block away, particularly her closing ‘take your ugly ass make-up and shove it up your limited ass!’

Having a moment free, Jonathon’s mind returned to that flower. It clearly had something to do with... Wait. Flower? Really? Wasn’t that the cause of all the trouble in Midsummer? It didn’t make any sense, but at the same time, it didn’t seem likely to be just a coincidence. And...

Timothy came back, grinning, and thoughts of unraveling the mystery of what was going on were pushed away as Jonathon got that heady rush of just being around Timothy again. 

***

They spent much of the afternoon at the park, doing the ‘getting to know you’ bit that Jonathon had skipped because of the social suicide involved in befriending the fag, and he hated himself for having cheated himself out of knowing him. Timothy was smart and funny, and surprisingly, led him back to his house, and Jonathon marveled at Timothy’s bedroom. It was a reflection of Timothy himself, with pictures, posters, and stickers covering the walls, all of them indicating the differentness of Timothy. Even the string of Christmas lights on the wall seemed to be representative of Timothy’s personality. Jonathon’s room, in comparison, had just a couple of sports posters, a couple of trophies, and a handful of books. 

Timothy gave a lame smile as he saw Jonathon looking around the room. “Sorry about the mess...” he said, making a lame attempt at trying to clean up before realizing the futility of it. “I’m... kind of a packrat.”

Jonathon smiled. “I don’t think it’s a mess. It’s... you.” Timothy flashed him a sweet smile. Jonathon stretched out on the bed and looked to Timothy with a gleam in his eyes. He grabbed Timothy by the shirt and pulled him on top of him. His smile turned into a wide grin as he looked into Timothy’s eyes. “Hi.”

“Hey,” Timothy said, his eyes twinkling. Jonathon kissed him, holding it. He could definitely get used to this. Before they got too hot and heavy, though, Timothy pulled away.

He gave Jonathon a sheepish smile. “Uh... Hey, you hungry?”

Jonathon nodded. “A little.” By now rugby practice would be over and normally, he’d be at the pizza place with the others by now. Of course, he was hungrier for Timothy right now, but Timothy was already heading for the stairs and the kitchen. 

Timothy put together a small meal (it barely met the definition, given that the contents of the fridge mostly consisted of leftovers, but it was the thought that counted). By the time it was over, night was falling. Jonathon looked over at the wall clock and saw that the fair was going to start soon.

“Wanna go? To the academy fair?” he asked.

Timothy blinked in surprise. “The... fair?”

Jonathon nodded. “Yeah. It could be fun.” He wanted to be seen with Timothy, let people know that he had found someone who made him happier than he’d ever been. He wondered about how that was different from how Becky had treated him, as the trophy to show off to the world, but he didn’t think of Timothy as a trophy, but as a person. The person who made him happier than he’d ever been. That made it different from the way Becky had been. He wanted to be seen with Timothy, but he didn’t crave the recognition of how he was with Timothy, just that he be with Timothy. Public or private, it didn’t matter. He just liked the idea of announcing to the world that he and Timothy were together, after having resisted it for so long. 

Timothy looked as if he needed some more persuading, though. “I heard Doctor Bellinger say they were going to have practically a mountain of cotton candy there.” Timothy still seemed unsure, but Jonathon could tell he was convincing him, if only because he was so enthusiastic for it. “C’mon. It’ll be fun.” He gave Timothy his best puppy dog pout. “For me?”

Timothy sighed and Jonathon grinned. “Just... let me go upstairs and change real quick, okay?”

***

By the time they made it to the fairgrounds, Timothy had clearly gotten cold feet. He stopped at one of the columns that had been set up for the banner, tugging on Jonathon’s arm to keep him from heading into the fair itself. “Let’s not go,” he said, doing his best to hide behind the column.

Jonathon looked at him in confusion. “Why?”

Timothy gave a lame shrug. “You’re different now,” he offered as explanation. Jonathon couldn’t exactly argue that there was something different about him now, but Timothy had just been the catalyst, what had made him face his emotions head on and accept them, not the cause himself.

Jonathon smiled, playing with the zipper of Timothy’s hoodie. “C’mon, what about cotton candy mountain?”

Timothy pulled Jonathon’s hand away, but he had a slight smile on his face, to dull the sting of the action. “I don’t think you’re ready for this.”

“I cross my heart.” Jonathon did so to emphasize his point.

Timothy shook his head, still not convinced that it was a good idea. “Seriously, I was beaten up for being queer before I even knew what that was.” There was a flash of pain in his voice as he said it, and Jonathon wanted to pull him close and replace that pain with something good instead.

“Well, don’t worry. I’ll protect you.”

“I don’t need someone to protect me,” Timothy protested. He got a sad look on his face. “You didn’t even like me yesterday, remember?”

“Aw, sure I did. But I fell in love with you today.” Not exactly true, but it would definitely be weird if he just out and said ‘I’ve been in love with you for the last few weeks,’ especially given how he’d acted the other day during the fight. Jonathon started towards the midway again, pulling Timothy with him. “C’mon.”

Timothy held his ground, pulling his arm back. “Stop. Stop.” 

Jonathon sighed. He leaned in towards Timothy, wanting to comfort him, but not sure what to say. Of course, his mouth managed to come up with something while his brain was still processing things. “You’re perfection.” Okay, he could agree with that thought, even if he didn’t think that was exactly comforting.

Timothy seemed to agree with that thought. “That’s the pansy talking.” For a second, Jonathon wanted to focus on that, but he decided that Timothy was what he needed to think about. He’d have time to go over that later.

So he just started tugging on Timothy’s arm again, not letting him stay behind the column. “Come on! It’ll be fun.” Finally, he got Timothy out. As a joke, he leaned in towards Timothy’s ear. “There’s a kissing booth.” He didn’t exactly want Timothy kissing other guys, but it got a smile and laugh out of him, which was what Jonathon had been hoping for. 

A little while later, they sat on a hill, looking over the fair. Timothy had led Jonathon up here just to get away from some of the stares and glares and mutterings. Some of them, Jonathon was convinced were just Timothy’s (admittedly justified) paranoia acting up, but enough of them were real that it had made Timothy uncomfortable – there was a reason that he avoided anything that brought him out into the public eye, and he decided he wanted to get away from them. Jonathon had wanted to say something, but Timothy had seemed content with just letting the matter lie and getting away from the people, so Jonathon had followed his lead. 

Timothy let out a disgusted sigh. “I hate this town. I can’t wait to graduate and get the hell out of this place forever.”

Jonathon chuckled. “It’s not that bad.” If you had a thick enough skin anyway, and Jonathon figured he could have enough thick skin for the both of them.

Timothy didn’t seem to have the same view. “Yeah, try looking at it through my eyes.”

“What about your family?”

“You mean my mom?”

“Everyone.” Jonathon had seen a couple of photos of Timothy, his mom, and a man he figured was Timothy’s dad around the house while they were there.

Timothy shook his head. “It’s just my mom. On a good day.” So his dad was out of the picture. Jonathon took a stab in the dark in figured it was a sore subject and decided to drop that issue. Timothy let out another sigh. “I don’t want to go back.”

Jonathon looked at him in confusion. “To what?”

“Real life.”

“This is real.” Jonathon gently took Timothy’s hand for emphasis.

Timothy smiled wryly. “Yeah, but... so, SO far from where I woke up this morning.” He let out a short laugh. “People were staring at us.”

Jonathon gave him a ‘yeah, and?’ look. “Well, stare back. People are just jealous because I’m with the best fella in town.” With that, he leaned in and kissed Timothy once more, savoring it. He let out a soft moan of pleasure when Timothy’s hand came up to cradle his head. After a moment, he reluctantly pulled back, though not before pecking Timothy real quick. He wanted to make sure Timothy got his point before they started making out. “People can change.”

Timothy took a moment to take in the kiss, letting out a sigh. “If they experienced that, they might.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Jonathon saw Cooper and Cole down at the kissing booth begin a furious make out session. “Look,” he said with a grin. He looked back to Timothy, wanting to follow the example of his teammates.

By the look on Timothy’s face, though, he had other ideas. “How many people are in this town?”

Jonathon blinked at the non sequitur. “Ten thousand, maybe,” he said, wondering where Timothy was going with this.

Timothy pulled himself up. “Let’s go.”

“Why?” Jonathon asked, wondering what was going on.

“I’ve got people to change,” Timothy said, leading him down the hill. Jonathon didn’t know what he meant by that, but followed anyway. He wanted to think about that statement, why Timothy thought it was the flower that was making him do this. Maybe there was something to that flower that explained what had been happening. But... a flower? Really? That was just in the play, right?

As Jonathon attempted to think up an alternative to the very idea of a flower like the one in the play actually existing, a voice cut across the fairground. “Game’s over sport.” Timothy suddenly gained a new growth as the boy from the school attached himself to Jonathon’s boyfriend.

“Missed you!” he exclaimed with relief. Timothy had, while they were at the park, explained a little about his friendship with Frankie and Max, so he knew that Timothy’s new growth normally had an on-again, off-again relationship with Frankie. Clearly he considered it off at the moment, given the way that he was trying to stick his tongue down Timothy’s throat and not getting the hint.

Frankie yanked Max away from Timothy, shouting “Get the hell off of him!” Max broke out of her grip, going back to Timothy.

So Jonathon got between the two, forcing Max to look at him, glaring at the other boy. “Leave him alone!”

Max returned his glare. “Listen, he’s just messing with your head!”

“He’s mine!”

“Quit teasing him and go back to your cheerleader!”

Jonathon almost gave a derisive laugh. “Any love I had for her is gone, I swear!” And he hadn’t exactly had much love for her in the first place.

This time it was Timothy who moved to break up the brewing fight, getting between his friend and boyfriend, trying to turn Max back towards his supposed girlfriend. “Max! Max! You love Frankie, you know I know!”

Frankie again grabbed Max’s arm and attempted to pull him away from Timothy, pleased at the moment of sanity. “Yes, thank you!” And again, Max pulled out of her grip. Frankie glared at him, her eyes saying ‘seriously?’ as if asking why she was expending all this effort on Max.

Max looked up at Timothy with soulful eyes, as if hoping that if he stared deep enough into Timothy’s eyes, he could convince the object of his affections of the truth of his feelings. “I love you. I vow, Timothy. My tears do tell the truth.” He reached up and caressed Timothy’s cheek.

Frankie clearly had had enough. “Okay, I’m going insane. Officially!” For the third time in less than five minutes, she pulled Max away from Timothy, this time tripping and falling on top of him, an action that seemed to do nothing in the way of keeping him from gazing longingly at Timothy.

And as if things couldn’t get any worse... “Found the fags.” Becky stalked up to Jonathon and began poking him in the chest with a great deal of force. “You... asshole!” Crystal had followed her, but she stood back and out of the way, as if reluctant to get between Becky and the object of her ire. Becky began to pull him away, wanting to yell at him in private. When Jonathon pulled himself out of her grasp, he saw Timothy point that damn flower at the two girls, who both let out surprised shouts.

As they wiped away the water from their eyes, Frankie stood up, right in their line of sight. Timothy moved to pull Frankie out of the way, but the moment that Becky and Crystal looked at Frankie, a change came over the both of them.

Frankie, not knowing anything about the flower, just glared at Timothy, wanting answers. “Look, can you please let me in on this?”

Before Timothy could even try to answer, Becky spoke up. “Who is this goddess?” Frankie looked around, trying to understand what had caused the massive one eighty in her attitude.

Crystal added, “Nymph.”

“Perfect.”

“Devine.”

And then Becky dove in for a kiss with poor, confused Frankie, who let out several muffled shouts.

With Frankie distracted, Max returned his attention to Timothy, drawing in close to the other boy. “Timothy. Timothy. I love you. I swear on my life I do.”

Jonathon pulled Max back, looking Timothy in the eye. “I love you more than he ever could.”

Max snorted in derision and turned Jonathon to face him. “Then prove it!”

Jonathon glared at his rival. “You wanna fight?”

“You’re on, jock-boy!”

Frankie made her presence known again, having gotten away from the other girls. She leaped onto Max’s back, this time doing her best to keep her grip on Max. “Max!”

Jonathon scoffed – Max wanted Timothy to himself while he had this girl? “You comin’?”

Max struggled for another moment. “Let loose!” Finally, he roughly managed to shove her off of him, glaring down at her. “Be certain, I don’t love you anymore.”

Jonathon wanted to make sure that she was okay, but instead, he just said, “Follow if you dare.” He then turned and walked off, though he spared a look back at Timothy as he helped Frankie up, or at least tried to. He couldn’t stop his feet from moving away though, the strange spell over him catapulting him forward.

***

Jonathon and Max found their way to a clearing, where they moved around. Max’s fighting style was clumsy, as if the only fighting he’d ever seen was on TV and had no familiarity with how to fight. Granted, Jonathon wasn’t much better in actual experience, but he mainly had to worry about moving fast enough to avoid Max’s clumsy punches. 

Max clearly wasn’t a fighter. It just took a few punches to get him dizzy and off-balance. Jonathon pressed him against the tree and delivering the knock-out punch. Max hit the ground and moaned. Jonathon wasn’t proud of what he’d done, but he hadn’t been able to stop the fight before it started.

“It’s over,” he said softly, extending a hand to Max, trying to offer him an olive branch.

Max glared at his outstretched hand. “Away with you, foul villain! Leave me be!” he spat. Jonathon backed off, accepting that Max wasn’t inclined to make peace. So he turned around and walked away. 

He made his way to the street across from Timothy’s house, waiting by the path out to the park. He took the opportunity to think things over. Everything had started when Timothy had shown up with that flower, the flower that was so similar to the one in Midsummer. And he’d seen that flower MAKE people like Cooper and Cole start making out, and Coach going head over heels for Doctor Bellinger, if the speech Jonathon had overheard him making was any indication, and especially Becky suddenly fall for Frankie. That flower had some power... but with him, it had just made him be willing to admit his feelings. He knew that with every fiber of his being. He was in love with Timothy, no pansy required. 

After a while, he spotted Timothy approaching. He grinned as Timothy reached him and they kissed gently. “C’mon,” Jonathon said, pulling him towards the park. Dawn was breaking, and he wanted to spend the day alone with Timothy. 

“I saw Max,” Timothy said.

Jonathon winced. “How’s he doing?”

Timothy shrugged. “He’s okay, but he’s still smarting.” He sighed. “Why did he have to walk in then? I...” He trailed off, this being his own private complaint, not something he was sharing with Jonathon. 

“I didn’t want to hurt him. I... I don’t know what came over me.” That was an understatement. No matter how aggressive the games got, he’d never gotten as angry as he had when he’d been in that clearing, even though he’d already known that Timothy wanted him, not Max.

“It’s the pansy,” Timothy said softly, sighing. “Don’t worry about it. Max’ll be fine.” Then he added under his breath, “I hope.”

Jonathon could hear the gloom and discomfort in Timothy’s voice, and opted to try and lighten the mood. “Hey, c’mon.” He tugged on Timothy’s arm, having an idea. 

Jonathon took Timothy up to the park, leading him to a secluded spot, a place that Jonathon often came when he wanted to get away from the rest of the world for a while – even with his parents often being out of the house, he still never quite felt alone there. But this little patch of solitude had always been his private retreat. It may have been a public place, but it was secluded enough he could pretend that it existed only for him.

By the time they’d arrived, the sun had come up. Jonathon couldn’t believe it hadn’t even been twenty-four hours since he’d accepted his feelings for Timothy. It had felt that there had been a week that had passed, at least. It was all so incredible that this had happened so quickly. 

Jonathon grinned back to Timothy. “Wanna go for a swim?” he asked. Without waiting for an answer, he pulled off his shirt and tossed them aside. He kicked off his shoes and waded into the lake. He turned back to Timothy, grinning as he watched his boyfriend glance over his toned body. “You coming?”

Timothy took another moment, pulling himself back together. “Maybe... in a minute.” He smiled at Jonathon. “I just want to enjoy the scenery for a little while.”

“Scenery, huh?” Jonathon asked with a mischievous grin. Timothy just laid down at the foot of the lake, and Jonathon played around with the water, occasionally splashing Timothy, trying to draw him into the water. But Timothy spent most of his time with a far-away look in his eyes, as if he was thinking of something. So finally, Jonathon pulled himself out of the lake and sat down against a tree. That got Timothy to join him, resting comfortably against Jonathon in the crook of his arm. Without either of them thinking about it, their fingers intertwined.

The suspense was killing him, so Jonathon just asked. “What are you thinking about?”

Timothy took a moment, collecting his thoughts. “Before yesterday... Would you have ever... been like this with me?”

Jonathon sighed. Timothy did deserve an honest answer. “Probably not.” Yesterday, he would have been too afraid of what everyone else would have thought. Now he couldn’t care less.

Before he could voice that, Timothy nodded solemnly. “I thought so.” He let out a dejected sigh, as if he was thinking that the only reason that Jonathon was with him was that flower. 

Not wanting that to be the last word on the subject, Jonathon pulled Timothy into a deep kiss, wanting to say everything and not being able to find the words. He wanted Timothy so much. It wasn’t anything to do with that flower. It was all from him, he knew it. He KNEW. Every fiber of his being said that Timothy being here with him like this was RIGHT, that it was the way things were supposed to be. And if it was some strange effect of the damn flower, he honestly didn’t care. This was what he wanted, more than anything, and no one and nothing could convince him otherwise.

As the kiss deepened, Jonathon’s hand slid down Timothy’s chest and he began trying to unbuckle Timothy’s belt. Suddenly, Timothy pulled away. “No. Please,” he said softly, as if he was having trouble with that decision.

Jonathon looked at him in surprise for a moment, then realized what was going on. Timothy thought that Jonathon was doing this because of the flower, not because he wanted it. And he understood that. If Jonathon was under a spell, then taking that step would have been akin to rape – he wouldn’t have been in his right mind, and Timothy would be taking advantage of him. And there was no way to prove to Timothy that he wasn’t here just because of the flower’s spell, even if he spelled it out that he wanted this. So he just nodded. “Okay. Okay. Whatever you want.”

Timothy smiled sadly, the sheer effort of will required to keep from doing everything he clearly wanted to with a willing Jonathon visible on his face. If Jonathon hadn’t been in love with Timothy already, that would have been enough to settle it once and for all. To force himself to be willing to back away from the feelings he had for a moment and accept that he would be taking advantage of the person he loved, that took a strength of will that was, to Jonathon, so beautiful. 

Timothy settled back into his previous position. “Just... just hold me, okay?” he asked softly. Jonathon recognized that he was about to fall asleep, and he realized that he felt the same. He didn’t know what time it was, but he knew that they’d both been up for over twenty-four hours. 

“Always,” Jonathon answered, giving Timothy a slight squeeze before he closed his eyes.

***

He dreamed again, this time of being pulled away from Timothy by numerous hands. He felt the urge to resist those pulling hands, but he was asleep in his dream. He could hear Timothy singing a song of devotion, meant just for him, and wanted nothing but to return to his love. He reached for Timothy, but he was too far away, and he could see him, he just couldn’t reach him...

Both boys woke with a start. It was well after sunset now, darkness having descended on the park like a cloak. A woman knelt beside them, gently shaking Timothy awake. It took a moment, but Jonathon recognized her as Timothy’s mom. She smiled gently at the two boys.

“Hi sugar,” she said softly to Timothy. Her next comment was addressed to the both of them. “I gotta get you to the school.” She didn’t expand, but the touch of desperation in her voice told them both that it was important. They pulled themselves up and Jonathon picked up his shirt. 

Donna led them to her car where Frankie stood. She smiled at Donna. “You found them!”

Donna nodded. “Miss Tebbit was right.” She looked around and spotted Timothy’s bike. “Go find Max, get him to the school.” Frankie nodded and moved towards the bike. Donna hustled the boys into the car. When the doors closed, the events of the last few days began to spill out of Timothy’s lips, letting his mother know just what had been happening. Jonathon listened, reminding himself that he’d given up any claim to being able to disbelieve this from the moment he’d accepted that getting sprayed by a purple pansy had allowed him to realize that he was in love with Timothy. 

From Donna’s expression, she was having similar thoughts. “Something strange has been going on around here, sugar. I can’t exactly say that I believe it all, but I have to admit that something has to be responsible. I guess Shakespearian magic is as good an explanation as anything else.” Timothy nodded and leaned against the window, looking utterly drained. Jonathon placed a hand on his shoulder, and with a weak smile, Timothy took it.

They made it to the school in record time, Donna hustling them to the wings of the theatre. Miss Tebbit pointed them in the direction of their costumes, and neither boy questioned the fact that they were there waiting for them, despite never having been fitted for them. Jonathon was also surprised to realize that he knew all of his lines, even though he’d still needed to memorize a good half of them yesterday. He wasn’t going to question it.

Shortly before curtain, Timothy approached him. “I’m sorry,” he said softly. “I never meant for everything to get so out of control. I just... I wanted a chance with you. Can you... forgive me?”

Jonathon wanted to tell Timothy that he was a dork for thinking that he’d needed a spell to make him fall for him, but opted to try and let his actions speak louder again and pulled Timothy into another kiss. Timothy let out a soft moan as he returned the kiss, but when Jonathon pulled back, all he saw in Timothy’s eyes were sadness. 

He was about to try and tell Timothy everything when Miss Tebbit rushed in, announcing that it was time for the play to begin. Jonathon looked at Timothy, but Timothy didn’t meet his gaze, just heading for his mark.

Miraculously, the play went without a hitch – Jonathon could only guess that it had been some kind of magical thing that got them all reciting their lines perfectly. He laid down, waiting for Timothy, or Puck, to appear to ‘remove’ the ‘spell.’ As Timothy declared the ending of the spell, Jonathon felt a gust of wind blowing through the theatre and then another spray of something hit his face. Remembering the last time that had happened, he opened his eyes, looking to Timothy, who had turned back to him and dropped to his knees to look at him.

A million different things seemed to flash across Timothy’s face, but he finally settled on saying one thing. “Goodbye.” Then he got back up and walked back to the wings.

Jonathon had to take a moment to process that, but then it seemed as if the fire sprinklers had gone off as light drops of something dropped across the theatre. He looked around in confusion. ”Is this part of the show?” It was a valid question, given how they hadn’t exactly planned out what kind of special effects they’d be putting together.

He heard Taylor exclaim something before Miss Tebbit hushed him and motioned for them to come back into the wings so that the next scene could be performed. Jonathon looked for Timothy back there, but he was keeping himself apart from the others, and he could see the other guys coming out of the spell. It was the little things, like the fact that they’d gone and made sure that there was more distance between themselves and their friends so no one could mistake them for being gay, and most of the guys who’d been paired off were keeping their distance from each other. Except Cooper and Cole, which caused Jonathon to smirk – he had a sneaking suspicion that Timothy wasn’t going to be the only openly gay student at Morgan Hill anymore. 

That thought reminded him of just what he’d realized while under the pansy’s influence. He glanced over to Timothy, and felt a wave of relief as he knew that he was still in love with Timothy, that his feelings weren’t just because of the pansy. But before he could go over and tell him, he got pulled away by some of the guys, trying to piece together the events of the last few days. Jonathon had a sneaking suspicion that he wasn’t going to get to speak to Timothy until after the play.

He was right, as his next free moment came after the curtain call, where Timothy got the loudest round of applause of them all. That moment made Jonathon realize that something in Kingston had permanently changed, and that things would be different from now on for Timothy and any other gay person in town. But Timothy had already vanished by the time that he’d gotten out of his costume. After a few moments of fruitless searching, he approached Cooper.

“Hey, Coop. Did you see where Timothy ran off to?” he asked.

“Uh, I think I saw him head upstairs,” he said, motioning to the rafter area that had been made into a miniature dressing room in its own right. Jonathon guessed that Timothy had claimed it as an unofficial ‘star’s dressing room’ for the evening, and he doubted anyone would begrudge him that. He’d also noticed that Cooper had been unusually gentle in referring to Timothy for once. Guess that ‘walk a mile in someone else’s shoes’ thing works, Jonathon thought to himself as he headed up.

Sure enough, there was Timothy, looking dejected and a little broken. Jonathon went to him and turned him so that he could kiss his boyfriend. Timothy pushed him away in surprise. Jonathon just smiled at him. “You were unbelievable tonight,” he said, awe, respect, and love in his voice.

Timothy just looked at him in confusion. “Don’t... Don’t you feel...?” His voice said he hadn’t dared to hope that Jonathon’s feelings for him would last beyond the pansy’s spell. 

Jonathon just smiled at him. “I feel like myself,” he said simply. That was all the explanation he needed. Timothy stared in amazement.

“It’s not enough to speak, but to speak true!” came the voice of Miss Tebbit. Both of the boys looked over to her at her declaration and saw her wide smile. They couldn’t help but return it.

At that point, Cooper, Frankie, and Max raced up the stairs, crowding around the two. Jonathon reflexively tensed as he saw Max, but just one look at his face made Jonathon realize that Max’s crush on Timothy was completely forgotten. 

Cooper laughed and patted the two on the back and looked to Timothy. “Dude, AWESOME job.” He motioned to the both of them. “You two lovebirds better be at my party tonight, cuz it’s gonna be beyond, all right?” With another laugh, he was out of the dressing area, going to find other guys to remind them of the party as well.

Timothy caught Jonathon’s eye and leaned in for a kiss. Smiling, Jonathon returned it. And Jonathon knew that he was exactly where he belonged.


End file.
